


candle in the night

by LittleRaven



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Mandalore, Siege of Mandalore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-05
Updated: 2019-02-05
Packaged: 2019-10-22 16:13:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17665850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleRaven/pseuds/LittleRaven
Summary: They have no port in the storm. They do have something else.





	candle in the night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jen425](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/gifts).



One step. Two steps. Between one breath and the next, Ahsoka runs to another roof, restraining herself from leaping too high. Above her, the sky, the escape route. Below her, her men—Anakin’s gift—hunt to kill her; one looks up and she pulls on the Force to slip away before his eyes reach her. 

She waits. The moment passes; he looks back down, continues his search. Her hand stretches outward, pulling Rex over to join her. He lands with no sound. Together, they watch the chase. 

Ahsoka, aware of her surroundings, extends that awareness. First the hearts of the men below, the stomping of feet; then the hum of the atmosphere; finally, the stars beyond, and in between, where the pulse of the Jedi would blink back at her: nothing. 

She catches her breath. Tries again. The light, the biggest one she’s known—but it’s gone dark. 

There is warmth on her shoulder. Ahsoka draws back into herself. She turns to face Rex. He knows, without a word. She puts a hand over his, thanking him and squeezing strength from the gesture. She hopes it helps him too, even if she’s not sure what strength she has to give. She takes another moment. Lifts her chin. 

No more of that. Ahsoka blinks the tears away, until there’s nothing but the task urging her forward. She must survive. For more than her own sake. Rex must survive. He’s the only thing she’s been able to save on Mandalore, this time. She’s here to make sure that keeps being true. He’s turned against his men for her. Become a target. She has to make that worth it. 

It’s time to move. 

They run, hop, and hide their way to a shipyard. No good. Too full. They won’t stop until she’s dead. 

Dead. 

Minutes later, they try again. They leave a warehouse, and in it: her lightsabers, just returned by her Master’s hands; Rex’s helmet, blue pattern singed and run through by one of the sabers; a dead man—their dead man—wearing it, along with a corresponding hole in his head; and a fire, started by a stray shot into the wrong canister. 

They hide, steal away as the remaining troopers converge on the scene. 

On the ship, they pause. Navigation requires coordinates. There’s Coruscant, the last place they had seen Anakin, wearied but cheerful for them after his own battle for the Chancellor. Ahsoka remembers the emptiness of her search, and she sees Rex remembering the look on her face. Nowhere to go. Their eyes meet. 

He inputs something anyway; Ahsoka can tell it’s random. She can’t quite smile, not yet—she doesn’t think either of them can. She closes her eyes, looking not into the Force, with the empty dark between the stars, but the beat of her own heart in the knowledge that Rex is now safe, as well as he can be. 

She opens them to his face, his concern, and this time she steps forward, both arms taking him in, looking to hold onto the warmth still with her. 

When he hugs her back, she tilts her head up and presses their mouths into a kiss. 

Ahsoka steps back from his surprise, heads to the pilot’s seat. She turns her head toward him, gestures to the copilot’s chair next to her. 

“We should go.”


End file.
